"Your Highness, I must remind your country that the mouth of the Danube River is still in Russian hands.
"As far as I know, Russia has always imposed steep tariffs on vessels traveling to and from your country. No matter how close the relations between our two nations may be, they have shown no intention of changing the situation.
"That is precisely why the ports of Venice and Trieste are so extraordinarily busy. Just imagine—if your country could hold the mouth of the Danube River in its own hands, what a different world that would be?"
What George Villiers said was true. As Russia's largest trading partner, the Austrian Empire had long suffered under this burden.
The Austrian Empire's merchants loathed Russia even more bitterly. Russians frequently ignored the rules; beyond the fixed checkpoints set up by the Russian government, temporary private checkpoints often sprang up as well.
Fraud, bribery, and forgery occurred constantly. Aside from the imperial household, it was almost as difficult as scaling the heavens for other merchants and nobles to defend their rights in commercial dealings.
This directly caused the profits of private Austrian merchants in trade with Russia to fall far below expectations, though the imperial household and the government were unaffected.
Yet if they went through the government or the imperial household, their profits would be reduced, so many people wanted to try their luck.
Franz could only call it reaping what they had sown. They could have paid a small handling fee and slept with their heads on their pillows, yet they insisted on seeking trouble for themselves.
In truth, the fees Franz demanded were not high. But many people insisted on saving even that little bit of money, and they did not want the Austrian Empire government to discover what goods they